[These introductory paras from (module 4 of) Sunthar's course on intercultural (cyber-) communications have yet to be adapted to this home page - SV]

With juxtaposition of multiple and
conflicting frames of reference, pedagogical principles and insights have come
to occupy the center stage in contemporary communications: making the world of
information technology readily accessible to everyman, facilitating dialogue and
mutual understanding among religious traditions, [to be completed] rlocutor that
may be recognized, if at all, only in the course of unmediated human
interaction in situations of sustained engagement. Since each individual is
going to follow his/her own itinerary and not entirely predictable pattern of
interaction on the World Wide Web, understanding of one’s own and other
religions (and of cultural issues in general) is likely to develop in unique
directions. These transformations at the level of mental representations are
certainly going to impact and differentiate the individual’s attitudes,
behavior and choices within his immediate social milieu.

For religious
identities to emerge, develop, consolidate and survive, communications with the
outside world had to be carefully controlled, a condition that was assured by
geographical isolation (Japan, South Asia), ethnic solidarity (China),
in-group marriage (diaspora Jews), and/or valorizing of oral transmission as
opposed to writing (Brahmanism). Conversely, the proselytizing traditions had
to rely on direct human contact for conversion (Buddhist missionary preaching),
suppress the dissemination of contrary worldviews upon conquest (Islamic
iconoclasm, Catholic censorship), and/or rely on new technologies such as
printing (Protestant Bible). The promiscuous human intercourse within the
public arena and secular workplace of the globalizing society has also resulted
in defense mechanisms such as mental compartmentalization whereby immigrants
assume one mode of behavior and discourse with the outside world, while
remaining attached to traditional values at home and within the confines of
their religious community. The fundamental assumption has been that unmediated
and unrestricted access to knowledge—even when indispensable for pursuing one’s
livelihood—is inherently dangerous to traditional identities that have been
constructed around and nurtured by a selective reading of the world. Religious
schisms, sectarian differentiation and heretical developments may be usefully
understood as attempts to resolve an overpowering and irreversible breach in
pre-existing barriers to communication: Christian universalism from the
confrontation of Jewish messianism with the multiplicity of pagan cults of
sacrifice; Buddhist world-negation from the disenchantment of the
mythico-ritual worldview when the pastoral Vedic tradition clashed headlong
with the secularizing mercantile mentality of the city; Rabbinic Judaism as the
diaspora response to the Roman destruction of the unifying role of the Temple
and the loss of political autonomy. The sudden emergence of an instantaneous,
seamless and anarchic medium of global mass communication is hence both a dire
challenge for the traditional religions and an unprecedented opportunity for
the uncontrolled proliferation of hybrid identities.unded
communities and parochial identities, the communications network offers a
universal reach to their otherwise marginalized perspectives and projects. The
best, and perhaps not so paradoxical, illustration of such developments is the
role of the World Wide Web in facilitating the anti-globalization movement to
coordinate efforts to defend and promote a worldwide coalition of local interests.
Glocalization, however, is redefining the very notion of ‘locality’ by
de-territorializing the context within which learning, exchanges, personal
bonding, and other constitutive elements of identity-formation are now
operating: the traditionally illiterate Roma diaspora, for example, is now
beginning to mobilize as if they constituted a virtual nation. The result is an increasing hybridization of
not only cultural and historical consciousness, but also of various traditional
and postmodern values, as reflected in the fluid, shifting and evolving
participation by individuals in multiple Web forums devoted to different
issues. The flourishing religious syncretism once so well exemplified by
unreflective modes of life among various communities confined by space and time
(so well illustrated within South Asian culture) is now making an even more
powerful and irreversible comeback in cyberspace, this time on the
self-conscious plane of representations. Though Web sites devoted to aggressive
partisan agendas mobilize their dispersed adherents more economically and
effectively, they thereby expose their tacit assumptions, peculiar logic and
inner contradictions to the ‘outside’ scrutiny of non-adherents more than ever
before. Moreover, attempts to proselytize on behalf of these causes or
perspectives through open online forums invariably fail due to lack of
mediation between multiple and opposed viewpoints. This is true even of
academic discussion lists run by professional ‘knowledge-workers’—even those of
institutionalized and heavily invested disciplines like Orientalism—that are
devoted to the ‘’scientific’ analysis of religious traditions. Because their
interpretations and even the, often tacit, assumptions are unacceptable to
those who subscribe to the underlying tenets of the traditions under
study—i.e., to the ‘objects’ of their discussion—exchanges are often
reduced to ‘politically correct’ requests for and communication of
bibliographic and other resources for research. The successful forums are precisely
those that encourage—through the sensitive yet firm mediation of a skilled
moderator—the expression of diverse perspectives within the concerned tradition
in such a way as to facilitate engagement with those who do not share its
presuppositions but possess vital specialist information, useful analytical
methods and broad comparative perspectives. What we are witnessing is a degree
of reflexivity being brought to bear upon the very processes of debate,
dialogue and consensus that has never been possible in previous mediums. As a
decentralized and transparent communication network, the Internet is inevitably
transforming the nature and future of religious projects, freeing their
respective ideas-values-intentions from the shells of myth, ritual, dogma and institutional
control that have till now served as their indispensable supports. The
techno-social anarchism of this ‘knowledge-environment’ offers a fertile common
ground for the antinomian impulses hidden within these traditions to engage
each other openly and eventually redefine the project of modernity itself.

Michel Biezunski is an inventor, and works now in the
field of information and knowledge management. He has created the Topic
Maps paradigm which has become an international standard and is used to
create topic-based navigation systems for online information. Since 2006 he is working on the Data Projection Model, a
model that enables information systems to become auditable, and is based
on the idea that no information item lives in isolation. By describing
all information as transactions, information systems become auditable,
in a similar way that accounting is based on the idea that money flows
are described as transactions between accounts. The Data Projection
Model also enables to decompose information into its most elementary
components, therefore enabling multiple views to be applied on the same
information items. Michel's
background is in history and philosophy of modern physics. He is the
author of two books (in French), one about the reception of the theory
of relativity, one is a history of modern physics. He also has edited
and published letters of Albert Einstein addressed to various
correspondents in France. He has translated several books from English
into French. Michel has created a curriculum for engineers on electronic
publishing in France in the early 1990s. He has moved to the United
States in 2001 and is now working as an independent consultant in New
York. More information about his activity is available at his web site:
http://www.infoloom.com.

[I was introduced to Michel in early 2000 via email by Dr. Claude
Vogel (Founder and CTO of Semio Corp. specializing in data mining) when,
as Director of Research at InformIT (web portal for Pearson
Technology Group) I was researching standards (Topic Maps, RDF, etc.)
and software toolsets for building a collaborative taxonomy of the
IT-space. I subsequently met Michel and his wife Isabelle in Paris while
participating in the XML World Conference (June 2000), only to discover
that we had several other interests in common, such as the philosophy of
science and Judaic traditions, particularly Kabbalistic thought (Michel
is a cousin of David Biale, author of Gershom
Scholem: Kabbalah and Counter-History).
Elizabeth and I subsequently introduced them both to
Charles and Aline
Mopsik, while they introduced us to Michel Grossman, who had made
a French documentary on the (remnants of the) Dönmeh (Sabbatian)
movement in Salonika (Greece) and Turkey, that we all watched
together at the home of the Mopsiks. Isabelle and Michel Grossman had
also collaborated on a documentary entitled "Nemt: A language without a
people for a people without a language" about Yiddish renaissance in
Vilna (Lithuania). Michel was instrumental
encouraging Jean Delahousse, CEO for Mondeca, taking me on for
consulting work in technical documentation and marketing. Michel and I
met thereafter several times in Paris, Chicago, and during XML
conferences in the US. Elizabeth and I had the pleasure of seeig Michel again in
New York in July 2011 and visiting together India town (Jackson Heights) —
Sunthar V.]